Bitter Brew

The Rise and Fall of Anheuser-Busch and America's Kings of Beer

An engrossing, often scandalous saga of one of the wealthiest, longest-lasting, and most colorful family dynasties in the history of American commerce; a cautionary tale about prosperity, profligacy, hubris, and the blessings and dark consequences of success.

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This is the first book I've read about the beer brewing business in America. I found it very interesting and it gave me a bit of history of St. Louis along the way. The Busch family included many hard-working, brilliant men who built AB into the reigning American brewery, and set the stage for its eventual downfall. Although August IV was not up to the task of leading the business in the 21st Century, his father was also to blame for the takeover by InBev, believing that "The Fourth" would mend his ways and become an innovative leader of the company. The writing is informative and never boring - the author wrote about the successes and failures of the family from the founding of the brewery in 1865 by Adolphus Busch to the takeover in 2008. It was handy to have a Busch family tree in the front of the book too.